Items tagged with Activision Blizzard

On the surface, the breakup between Activision Blizzard and Bungie has been mostly amicable, despite tensions that ultimately led to the divorce. That has come as little consolation to investors, though, some of which have banded together in a potential class action lawsuit against Activision Blizzard in the wake of the separation. The class action suit is being handled by Pomerantz LLC on behalf of investors. At present, the law firm is gathering investors to participate, and is investigating "whether Activision and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other...Read more...

We don't know if it was bound to happen, but it did—publisher Activision Blizzard and developer Bungie have split up. Perhaps it was...destiny? Or more precisely, the Destiny franchise, which Bungie will assume complete creative control and publishing rights, Activision Blizzard and Bungie announced in a joint statement. "Going forward, Bungie will own and develop the [Destiny] franchise, and Activision will increase its focus on owned IP and other projects. Activision and Bungie are committed to a seamless transition for the Destiny franchise and will continue to work closely together during...Read more...

The Overwatch community has been shaken by a controversial “social experiment”. “Ellie”, the first female North American Overwatch Contenders player, was actually an imposter. Both Blizzard and Overwatch Contenders team Second Wind have confirmed the sad truth. Overwatch Contenders is a tournament for potential pro players. Twelve teams in each of the seven Contender regions battle it out multiple times a year, and the winners have a chance of joining the Overwatch League. Overwatch Contenders team Second Wind signed on a player only known as Ellie at the last minute....Read more...

If you haven’t been bombarded at some point with numerous Facebook notifications to join your friends for a round of Candy Crush, consider yourself lucky. You can’t shake a stick without hitting somehow hitting something related to Candy Crush (an iOS users know all too well about tricky banners that automatically transports you to App Store in an effort to get you to download the freemium game). Given the hysteria surrounding the Candy Crush franchise, developer King Digital must be doing something right. Activision Blizzard was definitely taking notice, and this week announced that it has reached...Read more...

Like many MMORPGs, World of Warcraft can be a grind. To sidestep the time commitment required to continually level up a character, gather resources, improve skills, or whatever else is desired, some gamers turn to bots, software that automates the process. The only problem is, Activision Blizzard isn't so keen on this behavior and has dropped the ban hammer hard on gamers who've been using them. Activision Blizzard didn't specify exactly how many people it booted, saying only that it was a "large number of World of Warcraft accounts." However, a screenshot of a conversation between a player, Game...Read more...

When it comes to lucrative game franchises two of the most well-known ones happen to be Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. Activision publishes the CoD franchise while Take-Two Interactive is responsible for publishing GTA. However, there are rumors floating around that Activision might be trying to purchase Take-Two. Speculation began when a research note from Benchmark analyst Mike Hickey talked about “an emerging romance” between both companies. Hickey said, “For Activision, acquiring Take-Two Interactive would be a no-brainer, in our view, circling some of the strongest development...Read more...

Let's face it, the Call of Duty franchise is practically a license to print money at this point. As if we need reminding of that, Activision sent out a press release today announcing that it sold more than $1 billion of Call of Duty: Ghosts into retail stores worldwide on the very first day of availability. Helping to reach that figure is that fact that Ghosts launched at 15,000 midnight openings around the globe. "Call of Duty is by far the largest console franchise of this generation," said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. "More people have played Call of Duty this year than ever before,...Read more...

Activision Blizzard, Inc. has finally managed to buy back billions of dollars of shares from parent company Vivendi Universal as part of a deal that first announced back in July. That deal hit a snag after several shareholders filed a lawsuit, prompting a U.S. court to halt the transaction in September. On Friday, however, a Delaware court cleared the way for Activision Blizzard's proposed $8.2 billion buyout of Vivendi's majority stake in the company. The deal includes an acquisition of around 429 million shares for approximately $5.83 billion, or $13.60 per share in cash, by Activision Blizzard....Read more...

Fans of the best-selling Guitar Hero video game series will have even more songs to fuel their fantasies of pop glory. Activision Blizzard has confirmed that Guitar Hero: Van Halen is in the works according to video-game blog Joystiq. No specific tracks have been named, but Activision has said it will include music from guest bands such as Queen, Weezer, blink-182, The Offspring, and Queens of the Stone Age. The company also plans to release three new music-based video games this year: DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5, and Band Hero. DJ Hero will use a new controller shaped like a record turntable. The controller...Read more...